Thriller Influencer (2022): analysis of the plot and ending explanation, meaning and essence of the movie, similar movies.
Country: USA
Genre: thriller, horror, detective
Year of production: 2022
Director: Curtis David Harder
Actors: Cassandra Naude, Emily Tennant, Rory J. Saper, Sarah Canning
Slogan: Be careful who you follow – “Be careful with those you follow”
Awards and nominations: Nightmares Film Festival (2022): Best Thriller; FilmQuest (2022): Best Director (Curtis David Harder), Best Supporting Actress (Emily Tennant), Best Cinematographer (David Schurman); Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival (2022): Best Cinematography (David Schurman), Best Lead Actor (Cassandra Naude), Best Screenplay (Curtis David Harder, Tash Guttikonda).
In 2023, the thriller Influencer was released in United States, which received mixed reviews and ratings from critics and viewers. In the original it is called “Influencer”, and this name well conveys the meaning of the picture. Through it, as well as through an analysis of the plot of the film Influencer, we will try to understand the idea that the director reflected.
Plot of the film Influencer
The action of the thriller Influencer takes place in one of the resorts in Thailand, where we meet Madison – a blogger and influencer (influencer – a person who influences people, on social networks these are, for example, bloggers who have there is an impressive audience listening to their opinions).
The girl is relaxing at the resort, taking photos and videos, advertising posts for sponsored products and posting them on social networks for fans. In the posts, Madison seems carefree and cheerful, but in reality she is upset. The girl planned a trip with her boyfriend Ryan, but he canceled the trip at the last minute. She tells her close friend Jay about this, but he advises not to lose heart and enjoy your vacation.
In the evening, at a bar, an elderly British man, Rupert, tries to meet Madison, but a girl with a birthmark on her face intervenes and saves her from her interlocutor. Madison goes out with her and complains about Ryan and being bored. In response to this, CW (that’s the stranger’s name) suggests spending the holidays together.
The next day, CW introduces Madison to the beauties of Thailand, and in the evening the girls relax at the bar. At night, Madison discovers that her room has been robbed, and her passport and return ticket stolen. CW helps her apply for document restoration and says that the procedure lasts two weeks, and then invites her to stay with her. Madison tells Ryan via video call that she is late and, in an argument, suggests the guy break up.
CW and Madison explore the area around the resort, and then CW takes her friend by motorboat to a remote island. From her explanations it follows that she was always looking for such a place, because here you can be alone and not be afraid of being disturbed. Madison finds a fire, and next to it is a log with strange notches. She then notices there is no cell service.
The girls stay overnight, make a fire and drink wine. Madison says that as a child she was a scout and loved to listen to scary stories in the evenings by the fire. She brings up the idea that CW brought her here to kill her. The friend replies that she will act differently: she will wake up early in the morning and leave, leaving her alone. There is no communication, there are no people, it is far from civilization. Without food and water, the girl will soon die.
Madison laughs and says that subscribers will start looking for her. The CW responds that not only will her audience not notice the disappearance and not go to Thailand, but they won’t even notice the substitution if she started blogging Madison instead.
The CW asks Madison what social media is doing for her. The girl replies that she doesn’t feel so lonely with subscribers. The CW says that the reality is that no one cares about her and that while Madison, like all influencers, thinks she’s the center of the universe and that people should follow her, that’s actually not the case.
In the morning, CW leaves a sleeping Madison on the island and leaves, and at home steals her things, including a diary, laptop, phone and bank cards. On behalf of Madison and at her expense, he rents a luxurious villa.
For several weeks, CW films in front of landmarks in Madison’s clothes and wig, and then edits the photos and videos, replacing her face with the blogger’s face. She posts the content on social networks, but the substitution is not noticed. The CW then notifies subscribers on behalf of Madison that she is staying in Thailand, and later announces that she wants to take a break from social media and live in solitude.
The CW finds a new victim: blogger Jessica, traveling alone. CW introduces himself as her subscriber and invites her new friend to visit the villa. A couple of days later, she steals Jessica’s documents from her room, and then, waiting for her call, comes to the rescue and offers to stay at her place.
In the evening, at the villa, the girls discover Ryan, who has decided to make peace with Madison. The CW makes up a story about Madison going on a trip and letting her stay at her place. She didn’t tell the guy about this because she broke up with him. In the morning, CW, faking Madison’s voice, calls Ryan and says that he does not want to put up and asks him to leave. The guy refuses.
Further in the plot of the film Influencer, Ryan and Jessica discuss what is happening: it seems suspicious to them. Ryan reports that Madison’s room was robbed, Jessica says the same thing happened to her. CW has to say that this happens a lot in their area.
Jessica goes to the villa to pick up her things and move out in CW’s absence. CW appears and kills Jessica. She hides the body, but Ryan and company appear. The girl forces him to get rid of his friends and asks him to leave because Madison does not want to make peace, but the guy does not listen to her. CW decides to kill Ryan and, armed, goes to him, but finds himself in a photo of Madison posted by the guy on social networks.
To gain access to the guy’s phone, CW puts up with him. Ryan updates Madison and sees a new photo of her with another man. While walking, he tells CW about meeting Madison and how he brought her to fame. CW manages to get Ryan drunk. She brings him home and, while the guy is sleeping, deletes the photo of herself.
In the morning, CW escorts Ryan to the ferry, and then burns the clothes and wig that Madison wore in the video and photos for social networks. She keeps the diary for herself.
Ryan runs into Rupert at the bar and asks about Madison. After reading her description, the man remembers her and says that she left the hotel with a girl with a birthmark. Ryan shows her a photo with a strange man and says that it was taken at the resort a couple of days ago. Rupert explains that this is impossible: the weather in the picture is not what it really was.
Ryan becomes suspicious. He calls Jay and finds out that he hasn’t talked to Madison via video call for a long time and doesn’t know about her new boyfriend, although the girl would have told him about it.
Influencer Ending explained
Ryan studies Madison’s posts and realizes that it’s not her in the photos and videos, but CW. He goes to the villa and finds Madison’s diary in CW’s things. The guy stuns CW and ties him to a chair to interrogate him. He believes that the hidden meaning of her actions is the desire not to be lonely. The girl replies that all this is speculation and nonsense.
CW promises to take Ryan to Madison and they drive to the pier. The girl kills the guy and hides the body in the boat. At home, she leaves a post on social media on behalf of Madison, the content of which speaks negatively about Ryan. In the morning she discovers that the guy’s reputation is ruined.
CW takes a boat to the island to hide the bodies of Ryan and Madison, who she believes is dead. Arriving, she does not find the girl’s body, but sees many new notches on the log near the fire: the meaning of the ending of the film Influencer is that Madison managed to survive.
In the finale of the thriller Influencer, CW explores the island in search of Madison and climbs onto a cliff where two graves are visible (the point of this scene is to show how many victims CW has accounted for). Madison suddenly appears and stuns her.
Madison finds Ryan’s body and swims away. CW, who has come to her senses, sees this. In the last scene, CW stands on the shore, looks after the boat with Madison and smiles.
The meaning of the film Influencer
The essence of the film Influencer is as follows. A serial killer is active in a popular resort in Thailand – a girl named CW. She tracks and kills single female influencers and steals their belongings, accounts and identities, then lives their lives and impersonates them on social media. The motives for her actions remained unclear. These could be selfish goals or, according to Ryan’s version, which he voices at the end of the film, boredom and a desire not to be lonely.
Another possible clue to CW’s actions could be her appearance, which makes the girl jealous of influencers and hates them. She believes that she cannot live the same life, maintain social media and have many followers (while Ryan convinces her that due to her unusual birthmark she can become popular).
Because of this, CW begins to hunt down single female bloggers. By killing them, she takes over their identity and is briefly able to feel what they experience as those with fame and a large number of fans. With this interpretation of actions, material values are not particularly important for CW, although by taking the victims’ money for herself, she ensures a beautiful life for herself.
It is unknown from the plot of Influencer how long CW remains unpunished, but Madison is not the first victim. This is evidenced by CW’s actions showing how confident she is in gaining and disposing of girls, her words when she says that no one will look for Madison and Jessica as before, as well as the graves that we see in end of the film. Only an accident in the form of Ryan’s arrival and Jessica’s distrust led to her exposure.
The ending of the film is open. In it, we see Madison sailing away on a boat, and CW looks after her with a smile. What is the point of such a reaction? Perhaps she has food, water, or a second boat hidden on the island. Or she’s sure that Madison won’t be saved: she doesn’t know her way around water, which means she’ll most likely float away into the ocean and not towards people. Another likely possibility is that CW is glad that her victim survived, which means she has a strong opponent. The answer to the question remains behind the scenes, so each viewer can find for himself a plausible explanation of the ending.
At first glance, the thriller Influencer is simple and does not have any hidden meaning. However, the director in it raised an important and relevant topic that is relevant in our time. This is a question for influencers: that is why the film in the original bears this name.
Today, people often follow the lives of influencers on social networks and how they behave and what they say. These could be bloggers, movie and music stars, athletes, etc. Young people are especially susceptible to their influence, often imitating their idols in clothing, behavior, words, and actions.
Influencer shows that this must be done carefully, not trusting everything that appears on the pages on the Internet, because the life that people put on display may not correspond to reality, as shown in the example of Madison. In addition, it is not known for certain who is hiding behind the identity of the person being followed by the subscriber: creating a deepfake today is quite easy.
While explaining that you shouldn’t trust influencers unconditionally, the film also raises the other side of the issue. It shows that thousands of subscribers and their attention to idols is an illusion. In reality, they do not care about the celebrity: if it disappears, they will quickly find a new one and forget about the old one. They may not even notice if someone else manages social networks instead of her. The CW’s Influencer talks about this, and she also demonstrates it. All kinds of bloggers, streamers and the like should not blindly believe in their popularity, uniqueness and interestingness: if for some reason they disappear from the horizon, their fans for the most part will not be sad for long, but will find themselves a new object to adore.
Similar films
- “Beach” (UK, USA, 2000). A young guy, Richard, in the company of random acquaintances, goes to a mysterious island, which is considered “Heaven on Earth.”
- “Time” (USA, 2021). A married couple with children and in the company of other tourists find themselves on a secluded beach, where time passes very quickly.
- “The Perfect Escape” (USA, 2009). After the wedding, the newlyweds go to the Hawaiian Islands, where at the same time a couple of serial killers find themselves.
- “No Filters” (USA, 2022). Jess, a streamer and aspiring actress, in order to gain millions of subscribers, agrees to participate in a dangerous project taking place in the depths of the forest.
- “Sea of Fear” (USA, 2022). Jessica spends time on a yacht in the company of a new acquaintance, Ben. Together they save the girl, who, having come to her senses, tells Jessica that Ben is a maniac who needs to be neutralized.
